30/03/2025
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Today the European commercial rocket Spectrum, developed and operated by Isar Aerospace, took flight from Andøya Spaceport in Norway and flew for 30 seconds, clearing the launch pad and proving the launch vehicle can achieve one of the hardest parts of space transportation: liftoff.
Isar Aerospace’s two-stage launch vehicle Spectrum is 28 m tall, 2 m in diameter and, with its ten engines, it is targeting to launch payloads of up to 1000 kg to low Earth orbit.
The flight allows Isar Aerospace engineers to analyse all the data they need to tweak their Spectrum launcher for a next flight.
“Our first test flight met all our expectations, achieving a great success”, said Isar Aerospace CEO Daniel Metzler, “We had a clean liftoff, 30 seconds of flight and even got to validate our flight termination System.”
“A test-flight is exactly that: a test to gather data, learn and improve. Everything Isar Aerospace achieved today is remarkable and they will have lots of data to analyse. I applaud the teams for getting this far and I am confident that we will see the next Spectrum on the launch pad ready for test-flight 2 liftoff soon,” said ESA’s Director General Josef Aschbacher.”
“This test launch provides valuable data and is a crucial first step toward future milestones – to analyze, learn, and improve. I am sure ISAR Aerospace will return stronger with another launch soon,” said Toni-Tolker Nielsen, ESA’s Director for Space Transportation.
Isar Aerospace is a German-based company, building their Spectrum launch vehicle in state-of-the-art production facilities relying on in-house manufacturing.
Initially supported by ESA’s Business Incubation Centre, the company is supported by three rounds of co-funding from ESA so far, as part of the Boost! programme that helps commercial initiatives offering transportation services to space, in space, and returning from space. ESA’s support will follow steps preparing the second test flight of the Spectrum rocket and scaling-up of production facilities at the company’s new headquarters in Vaterstetten, Germany.